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The need to communicate and manage public opinion dates from ancient times; only knowledge, channels, and methods of communication have evolved over history. Public relations were preceded by another profession whose name is rarely mentioned due to its unpopularity (propaganda).

Although public relations were used in England centuries ago, the USA is considered the birthplace of modern PR. The first corporate public relations department was created in 1889 with the Westinghouse Electric Company and was established to suppress the influence of competition (in this particular case, the influence of Thomas Edison’s company). The term “public relations” appeared in 1897 in the “Yearbook of Railway Literature” published by the American Railway Association, and this year is unofficially considered the year of the birth of the profession. The first specialized agency, “The Publicity Bureau,” was founded in 1900 in Boston by three former journalists, and other (more well-known and longer-lived) agencies were founded soon after. US President Theodore Roosevelt formed the first media relations office in 1905 and is considered a pioneer in mixing politics and PR. The world wars significantly influenced the importance and further development of public relations, and the offensive on the battlefields was followed by an offensive in the management of public opinion.

The book “Effective Public Relations” (Cutlip, Centre, and Broome), which I believe is a must-read for our profession and is one of the few works whose quality is unaffected by time flow, contains a great deal of additional information on this subject.

In theory, communications are a broader field than PR, as it encompasses a variety of disciplines, including PR, advertising, marketing, and corporate communications. While PR is primarily concerned with managing an organization’s or individual’s reputation and image through communication with the public, media, and other actors, communication professionals are responsible for creating and disseminating messages using various channels such as traditional and digital media, events, and marketing content.

In practice, it is increasingly common to see that work we used to call PR in job ads or company positions is called communications. The reason is simple – over time, PR gained a negative reputation to a certain extent, precisely because it was attributed the power to “spin” the news. It is interesting the profession that deals with building and maintaining one’s good reputation got a “bad name”, and one of the ways it used to improve its image was rebranding, so instead of PR, today we more and more talk about communications. Just like in many other novelties in public relations and marketing, Americans are primarily responsible for introducing the new term into use, and as you can see, there are more and more communication managers in companies and organizations worldwide.

Many will say that news spin has existed since the beginning of time, which is probably true. However, this term became widely used at the end of the last century, primarily by politicians.

What does it mean to “spin” the news? In short, it is a tactic to reshape information or modify the perception of an issue or event to reduce the negative impact it could have on public opinion. The techniques used on this occasion are different: from the selective presentation of facts, obfuscation of data, denial without denial, an apology without apology, shifting the focus to the other side, planting “evidence”, and others.

These activities were dominated by corporations and their marketing agencies during most of the 20^th century when unpopular products such as tobacco and alcohol needed to be made appealing to the general population. However, during the ‘90s, this technique became visible in high politics, especially in Great Britain, during the government of Tony Blair and his advisor Alistair Campbell, who was considered to be able to “manufacture” the news he wanted to see in the media. This former tabloid journalist is probably the most famous spin doctor in high politics and one of Blair’s government’s most influential and hated figures. He was called the “architect of evil” and the “engineer of human souls”, and was considered the person who transformed the former British Prime Minister’s press office into a military unit, ready for the first time to enter into conflicts with the media and selectively use the truth.

Many people remember the economic propaganda segment in the TV program or the propaganda departments in former companies. Those times are behind us, but this term was widely used until the ‘90s. Afterward, it went to the graveyard of history, and today, it is used only in exceptional cases when we want to portray a person or activity in a highly negative light. This refers only to using the term, not the existing propaganda practice.

The term propaganda dates back to the 17^th century when the Catholic Church adopted the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Religious Association for the Propaganda of the Faith). History says that even Julius Caesar used publications and staged events to gain public support before battles, and it goes without saying that Hitler was the biggest user of propaganda techniques during the rise and spread of Nazi ideology.

Propaganda can be described as a well-planned attempt to get people to think and act the way the source wants them to. It is about “forcing” an ideology and creating a drive in the audience on a deeper psychological level. Propaganda is a form of influence that uses various manipulative techniques to achieve social consensus. As such, propaganda focuses on emotion, and PR on intellect. Public relations work to raise awareness or generate interest in something, while propaganda works to push an agenda aggressively. PR is based on truth and presenting that truth in a positive light (someone will immediately mention “spin” as a negative feature, but then that is not real or good PR). Also, while propaganda is based on one-way communication, PR supports open flow and two-way communication.

In practice, it still happens today that various propaganda techniques are declared as PR, which causes significant damage to the latter profession.

Edward Bernays was an American business consultant who is considered to have created the modern public relations profession with his revolutionary campaigns from the 1920s. His clients were large corporations, and he became known for creating innovative campaigns that intrigued the public. He brought great profits to his clients with a different approach and made an image of himself as a PR magician. Some considered him the “father” of propaganda, which did not bother him, but he said that propaganda is a praiseworthy and necessary component of democratic government.

As the nephew of Sigmund Freud, he was proud of this family connection, which contributed to the development of his work and the impression of the scientific basis of Bernays’s work. He started his early career as an editor for a medical journal, and this job quickly led him into PR. Namely, when he found out that an actor wanted to make a controversial play dealing with the topic of venereal diseases, Bernays offered to help. He established a committee that engaged prominent citizens to praise the play. After this first success, he began working as a press agent and built a successful business for the US government and corporations.

One of his most famous campaigns was for “American Tobacco” in the late 1920s, when there was still a stigma about women smoking cigarettes, especially when they do so in public. Bernays began promoting the idea that smoking was an alternative to sweets and that tobacco helped people lose weight and continued the campaign by spreading the idea that cigarettes meant freedom. He staged a moment with young women smoking while walking in the Easter Parade in New York, and the next day, the New York Times published a report from the parade with a segment about a group of girls smoking as a sign of freedom.

This campaign is known in history as the “Torches of Freedom” and was followed by others. Even today, there is talk about the case of the “United Fruit Company”, which hired him in the middle of the last century to help it in its efforts to prevent the new government of Guatemala from expelling this company from the country where it had banana plantations. Bernays organized press tours to Guatemala, preparing the ground for a story about the conflict between the West and the East, i.e., the US and the communists. The new government in Guatemala was not communist, but the American journalists he took on visits to Guatemala were fed the story of a government under the direction of Moscow. The company set up a fake news agency in the US that bombarded the media and public with “news” about Moscow using Guatemala to attack America. In tacit agreement with Bernays and the company, the CIA prepared and armed a rebel army in Guatemala and found a replacement or new leader of the country. Everything was ready for a coup d’état and the “struggle for freedom” of Guatemala… This case also brought us the term “banana state”, which we still often use today when describing non-independent states under the administration of stronger entities.

In the end, whether Bernays is the “father” of PR or propaganda is up to you to judge.

This is probably the most common question on Google regarding the PR profession. The shortest and most accurate answer is – it cares about the reputation of the individual or the organization it represents by creating and maintaining a positive public image of them.

Public relations professionals help an individual or organization communicate with the public and work to develop a positive relationship between them. How do they do it? They design communications using strategies and techniques that foster the relationship between the organization and its public, maximizing their client’s appeal while minimizing adverse effects. Tactics, methods, communication channels, and tools will depend on the client’s goals and needs.

First, it is a strategic function responsible for conveying information about a company or an individual to the public. Previously, this function was primarily concerned with how traditional media reported. Still, with the emergence of social media and networks, PR professionals are now paying significant attention to communication on digital channels and online reputation.

What is included in the job description of a public relations specialist?

• Strategic and integrated communications

• Media relations

• Digital communications

• Crisis communications

• Preparation of materials for the media, managers, etc.

• Internal communications (communication with employees)

• Event organization and protocol

• Creation and execution of media and public campaigns

• Socially responsible activities